Jean Gamba

Evil-doer

Full Name

Alias

Origin

Occupation

Member of Edmund Zuwanie's security

Powers/Skills

Creation of explosives

Hobby

Killing people, making bombs

Goals

Carry out Zuwanie's plan

Crimes

No information

Type of Villain

Terrorist, Conspirator

Jean Gamba is one of the two tertiary antagonists (alongside Marcus Matu) of the 2005 political thriller film The Interpreter. He is a member of Edmund Zuwanie's secret service and is a highly-skilled assassin. He is a key participant in the false assassination attempt on Dr. Zuwanie's life to justify his acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Matobo.

He is portrayed by Byron Utley, who is best known as one of the original (and longest-running) cast members of Rent.

Biography

Jean Gamba is a high-ranking member of Dr. Edmund Zuwanie's secret service, and works directly under Nils Lud. His specialty appears to be the creation and use of bombs and explosives, though he is highly capable using guns as well.

He is first seen at the beginning of the film, shortly after Ajene Xola and Simon Broome are executed by several of Dr. Zuwanie's child soldiers. He arrives at the soccer stadium leading a group of soldiers to presumably cover up the deaths of Broome and Xola.

As part of the plan for the "assassination", Gamba goes to New York City, where he and fellow conspirator Jad Jamal (who works as a janitor at the UN) sneak into the United Nations General Assembly chamber in the dead of night and talk about how "the Teacher" (a nickname for Dr. Zuwanie) would never leave that room alive. Silvia Broome (the sister of Simon who works for the UN as an interpreter) accidently overhears this, scaring the two off, though because of how dark it was in the chamber, she wasn't able to physically see them.

After this, Gamba begins keeping tabs on Silvia, starting by occasionally following her in traffic during her morning commute to the UN.

Later, Jamal steals one of Silvia's tribal masks and appears outside of her apartment window to intimidate her into silence, but he accidently leaves scattered strands of his hair at the scene. Gamba is infuriated by Jamal's carelessness and smothers him to death with a pillow.

During the United States Secret Service's investigation, they go to Jamal and Gamba's apartment, where Gamba poses as a poor industrial worker. When questioned by the two Secret Service agents about Jamal's whereabouts, Gamba pretends to be unable to understand them and simply says that Jamal was "with lady" to throw them off the scent. However, the Secret Service is able to determine that Jamal and Gamba were both possibly involved with the plot against Zuwanie.

Later, Gamba decides to eliminate Kuman-Kuman, Dr. Zuwanie's other chief political opponent who is living in exile in New York City. Doug, one of the Secret Service agents involved in the investigation begins tailing Gamba to learn more about him and his activities while another group of agents, lead by Tobin Keller (the lead agent in the Zuwanie investigation) go to his apartment. They find many homemade bombs and explosives created by Gamba himself. Gamba eventually boards the bus that Kuman-Kuman is riding on, which Silvia is also riding (she decided to seek out Kuman because of her belief that he was behind the death of Ajene Xola) - meaning that Gamba, Silvia, Kuman-Kuman, and the Secret Service agents following all of them are all on the same bus. When Doug informs Tobin (via walkie-talkie) that Gamba was carrying a black satchel and had been all day, Tobin determines that Gamba had a bomb with him and was planning to use it to destroy the bus. Silvia, Mohammad (the agent tailing her) and Gamba all get off the bus, but Kuman and Doug stay on. Despite their attempts to save everyone on the bus, the bomb detonates, destroying the bus and killing everyone on board, including Doug and Kuman.

Gamba eventually decides to eliminate Silvia to prevent her from interfering in their plan any more. He breaks into her apartment while she is supposedly showering and shoots through the curtains at her; it is not known whether or not he killed her. Tobin follows him into the apartment, and after a brief firefight, he is able to kill Gamba. He then learns that the "shower" had just been a decoy and she had never been in it at all.